Distribution Agreement In presenting this thesis or dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this thesis or dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. Signature: _____________________________ ______________ Byung’chu Dredge Käng Date White Asians Wanted: Queer Racialization in Thailand By Byung’chu Dredge Käng Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology _________________________________________ Peter J. Brown Advisor _________________________________________ Chikako Ozawa-de Silva Committee Member _________________________________________ Michael Peletz Committee Member _________________________________________ Megan Sinott Committee Member Accepted: _________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies ___________________ Date White Asians Wanted: Queer Racialization in Thailand By Byung’chu Dredge Käng M.A., Emory University, 2009 Advisor: Peter J. Brown, Ph.D. An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology 2015 Abstract White Asians Wanted: Queer Racialization in Thailand By Byung’chu Dredge Käng Scholarly and popular literature often asserts that Caucasian partners are the most desirable, given the political and economic dominance of the West, its media, and beauty ideals. However, based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork in Thailand between 2004 to 2014, I contend that middle class gay men in contemporary Thailand profess preferential desires for “white Asian” partners (i.e. Northeast Asians, Sino-Thais, and Chinese diasporans in Southeast Asia), who are, like Caucasians, associated with light skin color, high economic development, and cosmopolitan modernity. New Asian regionalisms and racializations facilitate such preferences. Thais are increasingly thinking of themselves as “Asian,” belonging to a common geography and race. In this context, desires for future social mobility are projected eastward onto newly idealized white Asian partners from economically and culturally powerful countries such as Japan and Korea. Thailand’s geopolitical position, situated between wealthier and poorer countries in the region and globally, shapes romantic partner preferences. Thai middle class gay men imagine, embody, and use partnerships with white Asians to instantiate their middle class position. Bourdieu’s theory of distinction helps to explain why middle class Thais are avoiding relationships with Caucasians. Thais stigmatize visibly interracial relationships because they are often associated with prostitution. Thai preferential desires for white Asian partners occurs in the context of middle class distinction making in a middle income country with an international reputation for sex tourism. While the poor typically consider any relationships with foreigners beneficial, and the wealthy often consider themselves to be above such concerns, the middle classes are particularly anxious about establishing, elevating, and maintaining their precarious status position. Romantic partnership patterns are one means to manage status concerns. These middle class attitudes and practices, however, are complicit in the ongoing marginalization of sex workers, migrant laborers, and poor or rural Thais. This study demonstrates that development and globalization do not replicate Westernization, but rather locally engage transnational forces and capitalism in an increasingly multi-polar world. White Asians Wanted: Queer Racialization in Thailand By Byung’chu Dredge Käng M.A., Emory University, 2009 Advisor: Peter J. Brown, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology 2015 Table of Contents Page List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgments i Notes on Transliteration and Conversion vi Map of Asia xiii Map of Central Bangkok Gay Venues xiv Key Events in Thai History xv Preface xvii 1. Introduction 1 2. Saving Face & Making Distinctions: 59 Development, Morality, and Sex Work in Thailand 3. Paradise Lost and Found in Translation: 149 Frictions in Queer Media and the Public Performance of Sexuality 4. Drawing New Boundaries: Contemporary Thai Racializations 189 5. “White Asians”: Beauty and Transformation in a Trans-Asian Context 233 6. Eastern Orientations: Middle Class Gay Desire for “White Asians” 315 7. “True Love”: Romance between “Ordinary” People 351 8. Conclusion 391 Glossary 405 Biographical Notes 409 Methods 415 Notes 433 Bibliography 477 List of Tables Table Page 1. Percent Change in Tourism from Major Tourist Sending Countries (1997-2011) 108 List of Figures Figure Page 1. Map of Expresso Bar 53 2. Proportion of International Arrivals to Thailand by Region (1997-2011) 116 3. US Government Per Diem (2011) 118 4. Isarn Boy Soi 4 158 5. Abhisit as Kathoey 181 6. Abhisit as Kathoey Sex Worker 182 7. No Entry for Sex Workers 184 8. Photo of HM King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck 207 9. Foreigners in Thailand by Migration Category 226 10. Korpanese Clip 243 11. “Seats Reserved for White People” 260 12. Attitude Magazine September 2010 270 13. “Asian” Terms 274 14. “White Person” Terms 275 15. Ethno-Racial Terms 277 16. Hemispheric Terms 278 17. National Terms 279 18. An advertisement for Chakran Sauna, 2009 292 19. Vietnamese Model Chan Tan San 305 20. Thai-Asian Profile 374 i Acknowledgments This endeavour would not have been possible without the support of countless individuals and organizations. First of all, I want to thank my parents, James and Helen, and my older sister Suk Hi, who raised me. I came of age under the guidance of Dean Goishi and other predecessors whose activism saved me and many of my generation. Nguyễn Tân Hoàng, my partner, has been by my side since 1997. The Nguyễn in-laws have given me another family. I also want to thank Elaine Kim and Yong Soon Min for being my fantasy Korean mothers and Stephano Park and Rosi Song for being my big sisters. My new Thai siblings, especially Amarasa Jarupon and Nick Phaisith, helped to spread my wings in Thailand. Nat, Gee, Eddie Nimitvipawong, Kratai (Vasana Sanguanchue), Carole Fuchs, and Mill Ledominance adopted me into their networks. My local daughters, Atet (Tetsong Jamir, the “Japanese” Nagalander), Bobby (Dinh Lê), and Knack (Anirut S. Meechai), accompanied me to venues my friends would not go to and kept Bangkok fresh for me during fieldwork. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, and especially Erve Chambers, inspired me to become an anthropologist. The Department of Anthropology at Emory University has provided an academic home for me for many years. I want to thank my committee: Peter J. Brown, Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Michael Peletz, and Megan Sinnott (Georgia State University). One day, I hope to be half as generative as Peter in nurturing students. George Armelagos always had an open door and convinced me to do research in Thailand. I also thank the Center for Health, Culture, and Society for a fellowship to study in the Rollins School of Public Health’s Department ii of Epidemiology and the Hubert Department of Global Health. Finally, I would not have survived graduate school without my academic cohorts in anthropology (Brandie Littlefield, Julie Soloman, Kenny Maes, Michelle Schulein Parsons, Sarah Barks and Sarah Davis, plus those cohorts around us like Alex Bruehl and Kwame Phillips and those post-fielders I looked up to like Maurita Poole, Sarah Willen, Ben Junge, Mark Padilla, Keith McNeal, Sarah Lyons, and Joanna Davidson) and global epidemiology (especially Glen Abedi, Jacqueline Michelle Allen, Jerry Abraham, and Joy Mirjahangir). I’m also grateful to a number of people who introduced and welcomed me to Thailand. Dao Passar made my first trip to Thailand in 1997 both memorable and inspiring. Bobby Stephenson opened his home, his bar, his family, and his world to me. Niels Mulder and Carol Jenkins provided early encouragement in pursing research about racialized desires among gay men in Thailand. Fu Kuen Tang, Kornwika Unthuang, Jiratti Bee and her family became my first and only home in Thailand. Hua Boonyapisomparn helped get my research started and collaborated with me on numerous projects. I collaborated with Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya on her research on transgender women in Thailand, which helped me with mine. Ronnapoom Suparasamee and Kantchanon S. Anu assisted with translations. I also want to thank Todd Shepard, Bene Nightchild, Brett Farmer, Arnika Fuhrmann, Douglas Sanders, Philip Cornwell- Smith, Viet Le, Joanna Elfving-Hwang, Laura Miller, Katrien Jacobs, Hentyle Yapp, Lucetta Yip Lo Kam, Denise Tse-Shang Tang, Kukhee Choo, Earl Jackson, Christophe Thouny, Juno Parreñas, David Halperin, Paul Causey, Ben Bavinton, Jason Lee, Stuart Koe, Julian Liu, John Won, and others